1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications and, more particularly, to a multi-mode mobile station and method of using it for wireless communication.
2. Description of Related Art
A user of telecommunication services may regularly use a number of different telephony devices, associated with different telephone numbers, to send and receive calls. For example, at home, a user may use a landline telephone associated with the user's home telephone number. At work, the user may use another landline telephone associated with the user's work telephone number. The user may also use a mobile station, which may be a wireless telephone, a wirelessly-equipped personal digital assistant (PDA), or other wireless communication device, associated with a mobile telephone number such as a mobile directory number (MDN). The mobile station is typically able to communicate with a wireless wide area network (WWAN) to send and receive calls in many different locations, e.g., any area served by the WWAN, using the mobile telephone number. Accordingly, a typical user may want to be able to use certain telephone numbers to send and receive calls while in certain locations (e.g., a home number while at home and/or a work number while at work) and to be able to use his or her mobile telephone number in as many locations as possible, including, for example, home and work locations.
However, good wireless coverage is lacking in many areas, particularly in buildings that may serve as home or work locations for certain users. Moreover, even if wireless coverage is improved in such areas, a user may still be faced with the inconvenience of managing two or more telephony devices. For example, while at work, calls to a user may come either to a landline telephone associated with the user's work number or to a mobile station associated with the user's mobile telephone number. Accordingly, there is a need to provide systems and methods that allow a user to more conveniently manage the various telephone numbers that the user may want to use to send or receive calls.